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Why Context and SEO Matters for Business

By Lloyd Roberts


For a a large number of people, Siri has affected the way they use smartphones. Siri, Apple's voice assistant and knowledge navigator, can check the weather, find a Taco Bell in the neighborhood or work out the square root of 13 without you even having to type into your iPhone. It's awfully convenient, and Siri has in memory a range of witty replies for those who think they can fool around with her.

Many users think Siri hasn't yet developed into her full potential. Experts like Ed Dale also believe that context-aware software such as Siri can change the Internet world altogether. For Dale, Google and SEO were in big trouble--up 'til the smart guys at the Silicon Valley giant introduced Siri's No.1 rival: Google Now for Android 4.1 oAKA Jelly Bean) phones. Apparently Google Now can't just catch up with Siri. It's got to push ahead of the game once again.

Google Now is so much more than just a voice-activated assistant; it is intelligent software that has the ability to predict what you're doing and what you want now based on three things: time, location and habits. To explain, Google Now searches for information based primarily on SEO in context.

Let's have a look at the following example. When you wake up in the morning, Google Now tells you the weather and traffic conditions in your normal route to work. If traffic is choked, it searches for other routes you can take and tells you how long it takes for you to get to your office. If you should opt to take the subway as an alternative Google Now searches a schedule of trains and tells you when the next train is going to go. When you reach work, Google Now opens your calendar and reminds you of the stuff that need to be finished. It's different from a regular task reminder that you create yourself because with Google Now, you don't set anything. You don't search for anything. Your phone knows your requirements based on context. It does SEO in context.

How does Google Now know all this information about you? It's in Google's privacy policy, which not a huge number of users take the time to read. Google has made public it is organizing content across all Google properties. This suggests whatever you post on YouTube can be accessed through other Google-owned internet sites, such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Translate, Google Maps and Google+. The world's largest search engine isn't just stirring up a privacy row. It's creating a pool of information that is ALL ABOUT YOU, and Google Now can use that info to provide the information it expects you to search.

Here's another example of SEO in context. Let's say you are flying to Bali for a holiday. Google Now knows that because it's in your Calendar and it shows you a listing of flights to Bali. Once you're prepared, your smartphone makes proposals about accommodations that might interest you and searches Google+ Local for the absolute best tourist attractions in the area. By lunch on day one, Google Now depends on your phone's GPS to trace where you are, searches for cafes in the area and even gives you directions on how to get there.

Searching based on SEO in context is a very smart move to make, even for a smartphone. And while everybody else oohs and aahs at Google's revolutionary piece of smartphone software, smart businessmen should take advantage and get a lead. Technology research firm Gartner, Inc. Vice President William Clark says that by 2015, about 1.8 bn. people around the globe will have smartphones, 40% of whom will be using context service providers. That's around 720 million smartphone users who supply up to $96 billion in consumer expenditure. By that time, if your local gas station is not listed in Google+ Local and therefore not optimized for SEO in context, even though your site is fully optimised for mobile (By the way, Dale claims that about 50% of all Google searches will be made through mobile in 2015.), a cross-country traveler who needs to fill his tank won't find you.

This effectively changes not only the way people search but also the way companies do SEO in context . The impact of context searching has yet to be felt as top competitors Google and Apple rush to develop Google Now and Siri. It's clear nevertheless, that context will redefine our searches in the near future because it makes it a lot easier for users. It's like Facebook changing the way in which we interact because we don't need to be physically there to do it, or Amazon revolutionizing the way we purchase things because we are able to now do it in a single click.

So what can local companies do with the forthcoming boom of SEO in context?

Get yourself on Google+ and update your business page. Google has been saying it over and over again: Google+ is not a social network--it is Google upgraded. Move your sights from plain SEO to SEO in context. Sign up for a listing for your business on Google+ Local and other local listing web sites and ask your customers to follow your page, check in with their phones and write detailed reviews. It also helps if they like your Facebook page and tweet about their experience with you. Why even trouble with sites that are not Google-owned? Because context searching is not restricted to Google Now and Siri uses different sources to see for info shared in social venues. Though Google rules the global smartphone software market, Apple isn't lagging far behind.




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